How to Publish a Book Readers,

The last four days have been extremely "How to Publish a Book" busy, and I've got some really cool stuff to get up here on the blog.

Last Thursday night, I held the first How to Publish a Book and Write to Publish Organizational & Planning Meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina at Cameron Village Public Library. Fifteen folks came to the meeting, and the major issues to come out of the discussion were:

1. Filing for Non-Profit 501 (c) (3) status for How to Publish a Book and/or Write to Publish;
   
   
2. Organizing workgroups with independent leaders for a:
   

• critique group open to the public,
  

• an organizational and steering committee open to the public,
  

• a marketing group for writers
  

• a self-growth group.

Friday night, I was asked to help set up and film an event at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh for two-time Academy Award Winner GENE HACKMAN. Mr. Hackman is on tour for his latest book Escape from Andersonville, co-written with Daniel Lenihan and published with St. Martin's Press. 

On Saturday night, I administered an Open Mic Night Contest for the Raleigh Write to Publish Group at Quail Ridge Books. We had 38 attendees, and seven folks were chosen randomly to read. The best reading was decided by audience vote, and she received about 30 bucks for her winning reading. That author was Ashley Steineger, and here is her reading... 

Then on Sunday, I drove down to Wilmington, North Carolina and led a discussion at Pomegranate  Books on How to Publish a Book as a Podiobook. We had about 15 folks who came to the discussion, and there were many excellent questions. I hope to have the video of that discussion online in the next day or so.

Thanks so much for checking out the blog this week, and I hope you enjoy the videos!

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

On May 9, 2008, I began serializing my book THE COLORADO SEQUENCE as an online Audio Book at Podiobooks.com. The way this works is that a writer publishes his/her book chapter-by-chapter in a serialized format, basically publishing about 30 minutes per week online. Listeners at Podiobooks.com “subscribe” to your serialized book, and are notified when a new episode becomes available. They can listen to it on their computers, and they can download it to their iPods. They could even burn CDs of it in iTunes to listen on a CD player.

Podiobooks.com has a liberal acceptance policy and a low rejection rate, and in four years, they’ve built an audience of close to 50,000 registered members.

Since THE COLORADO SEQUENCE started to be published online on May 9, I’ve received close to 4,000 total downloads and now have 436 registered subscribers to the book. These numbers grow daily, and it’s possible that by the end of publishing the serialized Audio Book (probably sometime in December), I may have somewhere around 30,000 downloads and a couple thousand subscribers.

A Podiobook.com listener can start subscribing at any time and so as a producer, you’ll constantly be gaining new subscribers as episodes are published online (not unlike how a TV show gains new viewers as it increases in popularity).

Without getting too technical, I wanted to write a blog post here at How to Publish a Book regarding how to publish a book at Podiobooks.com

1. You’ll need some sort of microphone to record your reading. I actually have an actor-friend doing the narration for the book, and I loaned him one of my SAMSON CO1U mics and a pop-stopper.
2. You’ll need some sort of digital recording software program. I recommend AUDACITY because it’s free, and it's user-friendly.

And that’s basically it.

Once you learn how to record yourself reading, there are specific digital formats that Podiobooks.com requires producers to use in publishing their books at Podiobooks.com. You’ll want to spend some time reading all of the details at their site. Podiobooks.com does have a community mentoring forum, where you can ask questions online and get advice from more experienced book publishers.

What are the PROS and CONS?

The advantage of publishing a book via Podiobooks.com is that you can reach a whole other audience that you wouldn’t reach otherwise. In terms of building a readership and in terms of publicizing a book, I haven’t seen a better vehicle on the Internet in the past five years.

If you published 2-3 novels at Podiobooks.com and built your subscriber list up to 5,000, that’s solid SOCIAL CAPITAL for an up-and-coming writer.

The downside is that there’s very little money (read “no money”) to be made directly from publishing a book at Podiobooks.com. There is no charge to listeners to subscribe to books published at Podiobooks.com. Any money earned is based on donations, and I haven’t received a single donation to date.

That said, if you’re stuck with a book (or books) that can’t find a home at a traditional publisher, publishing your book as an online Audio Book at Podiobooks.com might be worth considering.

Thanks so much for reading this week’s installment of How to Publish a Book.

Sincerely,

Stacey Cochran

How to Publish a Book Readers,

Every once in a while, I get a really, really awesome interview subject, and everything comes together just right. My how to publish a book interview yesterday with Garth Stein was one of those.

You folks will really get a kick out of this one because Garth's novel The Art of Racing in the Rain was just published last week with Harper-Collins. It's his first major book deal, and so he's able to relate to where we're coming from as aspiring writers. Two days ago, The Art of Racing in the Rain hit #22 on the New York Times bestseller list.

One of the most interesting questions in the interview was my last; I asked Garth how he landed his literary agent. His response was so insightful I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

Additionally, in this interview, he discusses the craft of writing, and he defines a category difference between the craft (which he states can be learned) and the art (which he says can't be learned).

If you're an aspiring writer, or if you wonder what it takes to get your first book published with a major publisher like Harper-Collins, you won't want to miss this interview.

Enjoy!

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview the new Executive Director of the North Carolina Writers Network, Ed Southern. We talked about how to publish a book, how to find literary agents, and how the North Carolina Writers Network serves the writers in its community. Ed was also able to talk about his work for the Book Publisher John F. Blair Publishers.

This interview also includes a Book Report segment by Natasha Gilliam on Brett Battles's upcoming book The Deceived to be published by Delacorte Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

 

Stacey 

I was asked yesterday on another forum about my experiences self-publishing my books.

The decision to self-publish a book is one that all of us have to face at one time or another. This was how I responded on the other forum:

Regarding your question about self-publishing, I've been extremely happy with everything I've managed to accomplish with a self-published book.

To date, I've sold around 500 books total, done more than 100 bookstore and library events, now have an author-interview TV show, am currently putting together a mini-national workshop tour in conjunction with Lulu and Borders, and have a major publisher contracting me to lead workshops at colleges this fall. I have two audiobooks, know how books sell and are distributed, know how to design an online marketing campaign, know how to speak at writers conferences, etc.

None of this would have gotten going had I not originally self-published my books.

I do recommend trying extremely hard to find a traditional publisher first, but if that fails, don't do nothing with your book. Get it out there and learn as much as you can from the experience!

A lot of this holds true. The fact remains that the business of publishing, marketing, and selling books is not an easy one to learn. There really is no way to learn how books are produced, distributed, marketed, and sold unless you jump right into it.

The problem with traditional publishing is that it may take years (even decades) to get your first book published (if ever). I guess the way I looked at it was that I didn't want to waste my life (professionally speaking) waiting for a traditional publisher to see the value in my writing. I took the approach that I would enter into self-publishing to learn everything that I could about the publishing process.

And I guess, now that I'm on the other side of four years after having decided to do it the first time, I have learned so much about how books are published, distributed, marketed, and sold that I'm amazed.

What I think happens to some writers, though, is that they are forced to self-publish. When they do so, they run into the harsh reality that may come with only selling a few dozen books. Then, discouraged that their book didn't become a bestseller, they give up.

A better approach to take, I feel, is that of realizing that with every book, you learn a little bit more and a little bit more. By staying in the game, keeping a positive attitude, and sincerely trying to learn as much as you possibly can about this business, you really can carve out a career for yourself as a writer.

It just takes a tremendous amount of self discipline to hang in there when the times are tough.

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

This week I interviewed New York Times bestselling author Bart Ehrman about his books God's Problem and Misquoting Jesus. Bart has published nineteen books, and he makes an interesting distinction between his scholarly books published and his more mainstream books published with Harper One.

Dr. Ehrman has been on The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and has been featured on The History Channel, CNN, NPR, and other top media outlets. In addition to publishing his books, Dr. Ehmran is the James A. Gray distinguished professor of Religious Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. His scholarly research focuses on early Christianity and the life of Jesus Christ. More specifically, he has focused on Proto-Orthodox Christianity, turning textual criticism around to show how the early scribes altered the Bible.

On a personal level, this was one of the most interesting interviews I've ever done. I found it completely fascinating, and I highly recommend God's Problem.

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

Yesterday, I drove down to Wilmington, North Carolina where I organize a monthly How to Publish a Book Writers Group at Pomegranate Bookstore. Usually, we feature a speaker on the subject of books and how to publish a book, but yesterday, we held an Open Mic Contest with the winner determined by audience vote.

It was like a literary American Idol, but with an audience of about 25 people (instead of 25 million).

This is how it worked: 1) attendees brought a ten-minute sample of their writing; 2) each participant could purchase a "raffle ticket" for one dollar  to enter into the reader drawing; 3) six readers were drawn from all the tickets entered into the pot; 4) each reader read a ten-minute sample of his/her writing; 5) after all six readers read, the audience participated in a write-in vote, selecting their favorite of the six readers; 6) the votes were tallied and the winner received a portion of all monies collected for entries.

One twist to this included that each participant could purchase as many one-dollar raffle tickets to enter into the drawing as he/she desired. So, to increase your odds of being one of the six selected readers, you could purchase five tickets (or more). This generated quite a good deal of money with about 25 folks entering (and many of them purchasing five or more raffle tickets) .

It's really quite a clever idea, and it's a ton of fun. It's kind of a twist on the standard Open Mic Night, with the audience voting at the end and the winner receiving cash money.

We've done it twice now in Wilmington, and the readings have gotten tremendously better. 

And, of course, I filmed the whole thing.... so you can see the winning reader here at How to Publish a Book.

When I got home late last night, my wife and I watched the winning entry on our TV, and we brainstormed ideas for televising this kind of audience-vote-selected Open Mic Contest on a national scale.... with the idea in mind that the winning reader would receive a publishing contract.

I think it's a hell of an interesting idea, but it would take a little bit of money and quite a lot of logistics to work everything out.

The most innovative thing about this is that the audience is selecting their favorite reading. I'd love to figure out a way to do this on a national scale (or international scale), televise it, have the audience vote on the best writer/reader, and give the winner a publishing contract.

At any rate, the winning entry won unanimously yesterday. Though there were six readers to choose from, the audience voted overwhelming for one reader. Here is that entry.

Enjoy!

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

Yesterday, I discovered a feature on Ask.com whereby you can check out the relative success of various websites on the Internet by seeing the number of "unique" visitors to a site. The How to Publish a Book website was launched back in August and didn't really start ranking high enough in search engines to be discovered until December. Since then, the How to Publish a Book website has steadily grown in the number of "unique" visitors this calendar year.

 

Because I've never before viewed other sites' statistics like this, I quickly searched several similar but better established book and publish related websites. For example, Sarah Weinman's crime fiction book and publish information website Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind. While it peaked around 6,500 unique visitors in June of 2007, her March 2008 visitors is only slightly more than what we achieved at How to Publish a Book. I was honestly surprised because the How to Publish a Book site is so new and hers has had years to build a following.

Interestingly, the website AgentQuery.com which I highly recommend receives about 15,000 unique visitors each month according to these analytics.

The thing that was most interesting to me about the How to Publish a Book website is that we're actually on the ballfield, so to speak, with these much better established websites. For a few months this past winter, I wasn't sure how much the How to Publish a Book website was catching on and whether it was worth the time and effort. If the numbers continue to improve like this for the How to Publish a Book website over the 2008 calendar year, I'd say it's definitely worth it.

So help spread the word, folks! Send the http://www.howtopublishabook.org link to all of your writer friends and post it on your blog! Let's keep the discussion on How to Publish a Book alive and growing.

Thanks so much, How to Publish a Book readers! 

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

Well, this is an exciting post. A few weeks ago, I interviewed three New York Times bestselling authors Jeffery Deaver, Margaret Maron, and John Hart on the subject of how to publish a book. This was my highest profile panel to date, and I owe a special thanks to Marnie Cooper-Priest and Will Neary who were in charge of the filming.

I hope you enjoy this how to publish a book discussion with these three New York Times bestselling authors!

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

This week I interviewed author Oronde Ash regarding his memoir 17 to Life. We discussed matters close to the heart of the book like identity, race, transformation, and immigration. Like so many aspiring writers, Oronde has an outstanding book, but no publisher has been made aware of it. 100 agents have passed on it.

This interview focuses primarily on the craft of writing a memoir, how to choose the moments in your life for a book, and how writing a book can help us come to a better understanding of who we are and why we are here.

I think Oronde's story is one of the most inspiring I've heard and one that seems to capture the very essence of what the American experience is like.

If anyone knows of a publisher or editor for this type of book, please do let me know. Thanks so much.

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

This week, I interviewed a small press book publisher and an author whose books are published with the press. The book publisher is Jack Fryar, who operates Dram Tree Books and Whittler's Bench Press. The author is Suzanne Adair, whose two book titles published with Whittler's Bench Press include Paper Woman and The Blacksmith's Daughter. It's a fascinating discussion because it illustrates some of the dynamics between author and publisher, as well as offering some key insights into how to start a small press and how to make it successful.

Dram Tree Books and Whittler's Bench Press will have over 30 titles in print by this Christmas. They have been publishing books since 2002.

A couple of things that came out of this how to publish a book discussion that I found particularly insightful:

1. If starting a small press, choose a niche market that is not being met by already established larger publishers. Too many people who start a small press don't analyze what books they'd like to publish, or how those books would fit into an already crowded publishing market.
2. If starting a small press, it would be extremely helpful to have someone in charge of sales; that is, a person who can stay on the phone with booksellers, can keep track of inventory, can analyze what books are selling and where. Again, most people who start a small press overlook this step, or plan to do it all themselves. It would serve a small press book publisher well to establish a director of sales and marketing right from the start.

The process of how to publish a book is fascinating to me, but book publishers who thrive in an increasingly competitive market do so because of clear vision, excellent books, and because they're meeting a demand that larger publishers have not already met.

A couple of example small press book publishers who have thrived in recent years:

• Lyons Press
• Breakneck Books

I think it all starts with passion. Knowing how to publish a book is key, but passion, focus, discipline, and the energy of a dedicated group of people is what drives a small press book publisher.

Enjoy this how to publish a book interview!

Sincerely,

Stacey Cochran
www.staceycochran.com

 

Hey How to Publish a Book Readers,

A few minutes ago, the phone rang here at the house and the caller ID read "Harper Collins," which of course is the name of a major book publisher. So I answered it. I don't get a lot of calls from major book publishers.

At any rate, it turns out the call was from a publicist at Harper-One, the "spiritual/self-help" book publishing imprint for Harper Collins based out of San Fransisco. We here at How to Publish a Book like getting calls from major publicists at the world's largest book publishing companies.

At any rate, to make a long story short, the publicist got my name and number from someone and wanted to know if I could schedule author Bart D. Ehrman for an interview on the TV show. Of course, I said yes, and so she's sending me the author's book and press kit.

I believe I saw this author on a major CNN special a few months ago called "The First Christians." 

A few weeks ago, I had a similar correspondance with a publicist at Harper Collins that led to the Mary Kay Andrews interview from a couple weeks back.

Next Saturday, I'll be interviewing three New York Times bestselling authors at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. If you're in the area, we'd love to have you come. Here's more info on the event. 

A number of other deals are in the works, including a current contract with book self-publishing giant Lulu and Borders Books national. And just recently, my wife and I have begun negotiating with several publishers regarding a book we would like to co-author. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

My wife Susan is currently finishing up on her first major book deal, a book to be published later this summer.

All of this is to say that things are really hopping here at How to Publish a Book lately, and if I haven't responded to your emails or messages, it's not because I haven't read them. I've just been overwhelmed lately. I really appreciate all of your feedback and questions. Everyone of them matters to me, and I can't say enough how much I value your time and thoughts.

I've got an audio book that is being narrated by an outstanding actor Owen Daly to publish at Podiobooks.com, and yet another job with book publisher Bedford/St. Martin's.

And suddenly, literary agents have been coming out of the woodwork. I've had requests from three this week alone to see manuscripts of mine.

Finally, here is an interview I've been meaning to put online for several weeks but have simply not had time to do. This How to Publish a Book interview is with author Zelda Lockhart. Zelda's books include the Simon & Schuster published book Fifth Born.

In this interview for How to Publish a Book, we discuss the road that led Zelda to her first major book publishing contract, as well as more generally how to publish a book, how to market a book, how to write a book, and how to survive after your first book has been published.

Enjoy!

Stacey 

 

Hey folks,

How to Publish a Book has a great new interview drawn from an interview I did with author Mary Kay Andrews a couple weeks ago. Mary Kay is the New York Times bestselling author of Deep Dish, published with Harper-Collins Publishers. She is on her book tour for her latest book.

In this interview, we talk about her book and about various How to Publish a Book strategies. One of the more interesting questions (to me personally anyway) that we touched on toward the end of the interview regarded the subject of whether new authors should consider publishing their books as stand-alones or whether they should publish series books.

There are different publishing strategies either way, and I thought Mary Kay's answer was great.

Publishing with a major publisher changes a lot of the dynamic regarding how to market and sell a book. For aspiring writers, this How to Publish a Book interview should be pretty cool.

Enjoy!

Stacey
StaceyCochran.com 

Hey folks,

How to Publish a Book has an outstanding Book Publishing video for today. This past Sunday, I drove to Pomegranate Books in Wilmington, North Carolina to interview authors Shira Tarrant and Shawna Kenney, who have both published several books and countless articles.

Shawna Kenney is represented by literary agent Jennie Dunham and Shira Tarrant has published two books with Routledge Publishing. In addition to publishing several books, Shira also teaches at the college level in southern California. Shawna has published several books with independent publishers, and her agent sold foreign rights to publish her books in the U.K. and Italy. One of her books was optioned by a film company as well.

All of this "How to Publish a Book" type stuff was the focus of our discussion. Enjoy!

Stacey
StaceyCochran.com

 

 

 

Hey folks,

How to Publish a Book has a guest blogger today. Michael J. Dixon is the author of Kicking the Tyres, a book published in 2007. The following is his own "How to Publish a Book" story.

Enjoy!

Stacey

How to Publish a Book

by Michael J. Dixon

‘Our Singapore office, who asked for a box of filter catalogues, have just phoned up to say that someone has sent them twenty-five copies of a book called “Kicking the Tyres”, by someone called Michael J Dixon. Is this something to do with you, Mike?’

‘What? Err…yes. Sorry.’

The monotony of the day job is broken. Two weeks before, the first two hundred and fifty copies of my novel had arrived, hot from the printers. I had asked for delivery to where I work, but hadn’t bargained on them being packed in the same sort of boxes that our trade catalogues are sent out in. The question “How to publish a book”, which had occupied most of my spare time for the last year, had suddenly become, “How to retrieve twenty-five copies of said book from the other side of the world”. I’d never thought to count the boxes before piling them into the back of the car, but then I hadn’t actually meant to write a novel at all…

It had all begun, three years before, when I’d woken up one Sunday morning with the idea for a plot in my head. I’m an engineer, not a writer, so I’d dismissed it as the idle ramblings of a disturbed mind. Engineer’s can’t write; most of the time we have enough trouble just talking to people. And the question of how to publish a book had never even entered my head.

But the idea wouldn’t go away. It echoed round in my head, all day Sunday so, come Monday lunchtime, sitting at my desk eating my cheese and pickle sandwich (that’s what engineers eat), I surreptitiously opened Word, typed in some bare phrases and crude sentences that summarised my “plot”…and pressed “Save”.

There; gone, forget it now, back to the spanners.

But it was still there, even more vivid in my mind now, and come Tuesday (more cheese and pickle) there I was again, ignoring the normal lunchtime office pursuits of abusing the photocopier and stealing paperclips, fleshing out this plot and adding some characters.

And so it continued. The crunch finally came when I had to make one of the characters say something. Writing dialogue just felt silly, something other people did. I’d be no good at it.

But I wrote some, pressed “save” quickly, hid it away and went off to do something manly (with a cheese and pickle sandwich). And next day, very sheepishly, re-opened the file. And it wasn’t that bad;  sure, some of it made me cringe, and some I deleted immediately…but some of it was ok. So I wrote some more.

In retrospect, it’s absolutely not the way to write a book; I effectively started from the middle and worked outwards, developing a style as I went and re-writing huge sections when they no longer fitted. But the characters developed, became real in my mind to the point where I often knew what they would do in the next crisis, and after about a year…I had a book!

So…how to publish? By this time I’d read up on the web about agents, deals and publishers…and found out quite how small the margin is for the author. Basically, for a small-run paperback book, the author ends up with between five and eight percent, so on a cover price of £8.00, that’s about 50p. Put another way, on an initial run of 5000 copies, the author would make £2500… if all the copies sold.

This was not attractive for something that had, by this time, taken three years to write and I started to wonder right then why people published books the conventional way. I’m not a negotiator, I can get the best price on a cheese and pickle sandwich but that’s about it, but with margins that small, an agent seemed like a good idea. I read up on “submissions”, which seemed to be just a grand title for sample, produced a synopsis (much harder than writing the book itself) and sent it off to a few who said they handled general fiction.

And while I waited for an answer, I looked some more at self-publishing. That was hard work, because most of them don’t answer email, which took them straight off my list of possibles. The only one I found who I could actually have a conversation with was Richard Fitts, the editor of www.authorsonline.co.uk, and he was very helpful. It looked as though there might be some sort of alternative to mainstream publishing.

And then the rejections came, dozens of them, as many in fact as the number of “submissions” I’d sent out. I’d read all sorts of nasty things about agents, but I have absolutely no quarrel with this lot; they all replied within a reasonable time, they were all professional in their responses, and some of them added some specific comments. But they all said “no”, or “no thanks”.

“How to publish a book” was becoming more difficult than “How to write a book”. By this time, “Kicking the Tyres” had been read by a small group of friends, and a strong consensus of opinion had come back; “ It’s a jolly good read, and I couldn’t put it down…but it’s too complicated and the ending doesn’t work”. My wife added one further remark (which didn’t seem to have bothered the others); “There are far too many erect nipples in this book.”

This surprised me; I didn’t think that was possible, but, while I spent the next year simplifying the plot and changing the ending…I also reduced the nipple count. And mused some more on the “how to publish” question.

Then I realised something; while self-publishing is a  way of getting a few hundred copies printed, at a reasonable price…it doesn’t get any cheaper the more you print. On an £8.00 cover price, you only ever make £2-3, even if you sell ten thousand. Now, while this is a whole lot better than the 50p we mentioned above, it’s still not an attractive business proposition in the long term. And if you distribute through any sort of bookseller (be it Amazon or real shops), the profit drops even more.

A third option, however, gradually emerged; become your own publisher and deal directly with a printer. Unlike self-publishers, printers have a sliding scale, depending on how many copies you buy at a time. If you buy ten, the cost is higher than from your self-publisher. If you buy a few hundred, it’s about the same, but if you buy five thousand it drops to around £1.50 per copy. Now we’re talking!

A business plan emerged; buy 250 copies, direct from a printer, costing about £5.00 each, and sell for £8.00, at a modest margin. Postage on internet orders will, of course eat up most of that profit, but the ones sold directly will counter that. And the point at this stage is not to make a profit; it’s to gain experience of marketing and to get some confidence that I can actually sell my own book. By the time I’ve shifted 250, and established a steady “number per week” figure, I will have the confidence to buy 5000, and start making proper money.

And that is what I’m doing. My landing is full of boxes (plus one in Singapore!) and I’m working my way through them, selling slowly but surely and already making something like four times the profit that a “real” published author does per copy. And, I suspect, with no more effort. From what I can tell, conventionally published new writers seem to end up doing most of their own publicity, for a very lowly share of the profit.

So how do I sell them? How do people actually find my book? The answer comes back to one of the basic tenets of writing; “write about something you know about”. I wrote about horse-riding and racing cars (yes, ok, and erect nipples). Not only do I ride a horse, but I run a horse-trials photography business, called www.situpandkick.com . We launched the book at an event (with prior agreement from the organisers), primed the cross-country commentator with a free copy, put up posters and handed out leaflets. The result was fantastic! Henry, the commentator, filled in gaps in the cross-country action by reading out extracts and, before long, copies were being brought out to me on the track for signing. It was a wonderful feeling, and it continued:

A week later, I phoned someone with a question about their order for photographs, and their mother, completely spontaneously, yelled across the room, “Tell him I’m half way through his book and it’s really good!” It doesn’t get any better than that and the trick is to harvest these comments, write them down and, better still, get permission to use it as a quote, with a name. It really brings the book alive to the punters. I’ve found it’s really hard to get anyone to actually write a review for me but, if you catch people just saying something nice and ask them “Can I use that?” they will usually look flattered, smile and nod.

There was also the retired teacher I met last week, who fixed me with her beady eye and started off with: “I’ve read your book…and I found three mistakes in it.” And she hadn’t even bought it, she’d borrowed it off a friend! The subsequent conversation did, however, reveal that she had read all the way to the end (despite the grammatical errors) and wanted to know if there would be a sequel.

The answer is yes, definitely. The book now has a major presence on my website www.michaeljdixon.co.uk and a steadily growing group of supporters who want me to quit the day job and write it. I really can’t wait to do it; the plot is mapped out and the characters are ready. I just need to get “Kicking the Tyres” firmly established in its own little market place. I’m thoroughly enjoying all the effort and I’m meeting lots of fun people.

And I’m already making £3 per copy.

Hey folks,

How to Publish a Book has an excellent new video on Internet Book Marketing and on information about how to publish a book. The following video comes from last Thursday evening; I interviewed author Matthew Peterson about his book Paraworld Zero and about how to publish a book and how to market a book in an internet-driven world.

His book has just recently been published by Windstorm Creative, and he has focused much of his book marketing and publicity via the internet. In the video, we discuss how to publish a book, internet book marketing, the internet as a place to publish a book, MySpace, designing an author website, Search Engine Optimization, and many other areas related to how to publish a book and how to market a book using the Internet.

As always, if you have any questions about how to publish a book, how to get a literary agent, or how to market a book using the internet, feel free to drop me a line using the "Contact Us" page of the How to Publish a Book site. Thanks so much!

Stacey
StaceyCochran.com

Hey folks,

This week's interview for How to Publish a Book comes from Friday's taping of The Artist's Craft on Raleigh Television Network Channel 10 and features Jock Brandis, author, inventor, filmmaker, and founder of the non-profit organization Full Belly Project.

Jock's resume is one of the most impressive we've had on How to Publish a Book. He's worked with Stephen King (on Maximum Overdrive), John Travolta (on Domestic Disturbance), David Lynch (on Blue Velvet), David Cronenberg (on Videodrome), Alan Alda (on Betsy's Wedding), and he published his book The Ship's Cat as part of a challenge he made with Kurt Vonnegut.

In recent years, he's turned his genius towards helping to feed the hungry in Third World countries, and is the inventor of the Malian Peanut Sheller. He has begun work with MIT's D-Lab to help create technologies for small villages to improve the lives of the folks around the globe from Uganda, to Mali, to the Philippines.

This interview is in three parts on YouTube.

As always, if you have comments, questions, or would like to chat about how to publish a book, drop us a line through the "contact us" page on this site.

Thanks so much, and enjoy the interview!

Stacey

StaceyCochran.com 

Hey folks,

This week's interview for How to Publish a Book comes from yesterday's taping of The Artist's Craft. The guest was Adam Shepard, and his book is Scratch Beginnings. Although a self-published book, Scratch Beginnings led to an article in the New York Post, which incredibly led to an upcoming interview on the Today Show and one on Inside Edition. I've never heard of a self-published author getting on the Today Show, and so this interview for How to a Publish a Book is worth watching in order to see how to publish a book the right way.

Directed by Michael Graziano and Marnie Cooper-Priest, this interview for How to Publish a Book also includes a new segment on our show The Book Report with Natasha Gilliam. Natasha chose The Kite Runner for her first Book Report spotlight.

Enjoy!

Stacey 
StaceyCochran.com

 

Hey folks,

We have a new video for How to Publish a Book. Yesterday, I drove down to Wilmington, North Carolina to moderate a discussion at Pomegranate Books on the topic of how to publish a book with authors Luleen Anderson and Brooks Preik. Ms. Preik is the author of the bestselling regional collection Haunted Wilmington, which has sold over 20,000 copies.

Dr. Anderson is a retired clinical psychologist and the author of the book The Knack of a Happy Life.  You might check out the interview I did with Luleen for The Artist's Craft a month ago (further down on the blog at November 30, 2007).

Both books are non-fiction, and we get a good number of question here at How to Publish a Book specifically asking about non-fiction books and how to publish them. So hopefully, you'll find this discussion both fun and entertaining.

I've broken it into two 35-minute parts and posted it on Google video. Here is Part 1. 

Stacey
www.staceycochran.com

 

 

We've got a new episode of The Artist's Craft for How to Publish a Book, as well as some new footage from the Raleigh Write to Publish Group.

On Thursday December 20, we held an Open Mic Night Contest at a local public library. We had about 20-25 people who attended, and everyone put a dollar into the pot for a chance to read. You could enter your name into the drawing as many times as you wanted, but you had to pay a dollar per entry.

Then, we chose six names randomly from all the entries. Those six people read a ten-minute section of their own writing, and then the group voted at the end on whose was the best. The winner got all of the money accumulated in the pot (it turned out to be about 30-40 dollars).

At any rate, I filmed the whole thing for How to Publish a Book, and I edited the two highest vote getters into a new episode of The Artist's Craft to air on Time/Warner cable and RTN-10 in Raleigh.

Bottom line, it was an absolute blast, and the competition aspect of it helped to energize and focus what would have otherwise just been the same old Open Mic Night. Everybody had fun.   

Pictured first, is the whole episode of The Artist's Craft as it will appear on TV in about four weeks. The top two entries by Gurpreet Jawa and Richard Dell appear in this episode.